Indicating closure for bottles



Jan. 4, 1938. l. 1.. MERMER 2,104,236

IND ICATING CLOSURE FOR BOTTLES Filed April 6, 1936 ATTGRNEY Patented Jan. 4, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

By means of the present invention, a closure is provided stamped or drawn out of a single piece of metal and which when rotated to closed position upon a threaded bottle neck, will be locked in position against removal by reverse rotation, reverse rotation tearing away locking areas of the skirt portion of the closure and thus visually showing that the bottle has been opened.

The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:-

Figure 1 is a plan view, partly broken away, of an embodiment of the invention applied to a threaded neck of a bottle.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the closure.

Figure 3 is a view in elevation of a modified form of the closure applied to a threaded bottle neck, the closure being partly broken away.

Figure 4 is a vertical section through the threaded neck of a bottle and a closure applied thereto.

Referring to the drawing, and particularly to Figures 1, 2, and 4, I have indicated at I the upper portion of a bottle having a threaded neck 2. Below the threaded portion of the neck the latter is formed with outwardly projecting annular flange at 20: formed with a series of recesses at 3.

The closure 4 is stamped or stamped and spun from a piece of sheet metal and is provided with a threaded area lrc and a skirt 5. The skirt 5 is formed with a series of U-shaped slits, the metal intermediate the horizontal legs and each slit being bent inwardly to form locking prongs 6. These prongs at their ends attached to the skirt are weakened, as by means of perforations so as tc. readily break away when the cap is rotated in clockwise direction on the bottle neck which will move downwardly until the locking prongs come into register with the recesses 3. Inasmuch as the locking prongs are sprung inwardly they will slip into and thence out of the recesses in which they meet until the cap is firmly screwed down into position. At this point, each locking prong will be seated within one of the'recesses with its free end in register with an abutment provided by a recessed wall, as shown more particularly in Figure 1.

Upon rotation of the cap to remove the same, the free end of each prong will engage its adjacent recess wall and the force applied to rotate the cap will break away each prong at the weakened end thereof attached to the skirt. The cap may then be removed. When it is replaced it will clearly show, by the omission of the prongs, that the bottle has been opened. Hence, unauthorized refilling of a bottle will be substantially impeded.

To further signal that a bottle has been opened, the back wall of each recess may be colored red or be given some-other signalling color, or said wall may bear a word or words indicating that the bottle has been opened such as Opened.

I prefer that the prong holding skirt of the cap be outwardly extended beyond the vertical lines bounding the threaded area of the cap in order that the prongs when bent inwardly will lie out of register with the threads, and this is the construction illustrated in the drawing. Such an arrangement is not entirely essential however.

In Figure 3, the cap is somewhat modified as compared with the structure shown in Figures 1 and 2, in that the prongs are short and are increased in number. The bottle neck area below the threaded area will, of course, have a corresponding formation.

Having described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as prong-like members integrally formed in the skirt and adapted to enter recesses formed in a bottle neck to which the caplike member is applied and to act as pawls in the rotation of the cap, each prong-like member having a weakened wall attaching it to the skirt, whereby rotation of the closure will effect breaking of the pawls from the skirt.

IRVING L. MERMER. 

